Author
Topic: Cheap water storage (Read 6026 times)

Instead of buying big expensive containers for water storage... Try these...- 2L pop bottles. You can wash & refill these puppies instead of tossing them in the blue box every week!- In Canada, Costco has 15L water cooler jugs full of water for only about $3.19 or something like that. Get a $5 hand pump to go with them. - Find a great deal on garbage cans (brand new). Fill them with water in a corner of the basement or garage, cover with lid provided & there you go.- Any container that closes tightly, is safe & is best of all, FREE or re-purposed is a great thing!

But what about toilet flushing water? Always good to keep some of that in the bathroom closet. I have a couple of old pool chemical buckets with screw on lids, each with 6L in it for a flush... Just be sure to check how much your toilet uses per flush. My rain collection system should provide enough water for future flushings.

- Find a great deal on garbage cans (brand new). Fill them with water in a corner of the basement or garage, cover with lid provided & there you go.

I have the big tanks, ST, but I also have half a dozen 45 gall plastic garbage cans, purchased on sale at Lowes, stacked in a corner of the patio, ready to fill with water in the event of emergency. (I'm hoping enough water will remain in the system to let me do that in, say, an earthquake). The big problem with storing water is, for most urban folks, finding the space to do so. Stuff weighs eight pounds a gallon, too, which is always good to keep in mind.

- Find a great deal on garbage cans (brand new). Fill them with water in a corner of the basement or garage, cover with lid provided & there you go.

I would worry about chemicals from the plastic leaching into the water if the garbage cans are being used for long term storage, since they arent considered food grade. OTOH, they would be great for LTS of grey water. If these are being filled as Bill suggested, right after a SHTF scenario, the water should be fit for consumption temporarily.

I would worry about chemicals from the plastic leaching into the water if the garbage cans are being used for long term storage, since they arent considered food grade. OTOH, they would be great for LTS of grey water. If these are being filled as Bill suggested, right after a SHTF scenario, the water should be fit for consumption temporarily.

Even if used for long term storage, and even if some chemicals leached in, the water would probably be fine for flushing toilets, showering, watering plants, cleaning floors, etc. And still easier than hauling it from the nearest stream or swimming pool, if you're going to have to filter it anyway. But yeah, I wouldn't want it to be my ONLY storage.

All good points to keep in mind... I plan on using my barrel water for anything but drinking, except in the most dire situations. If I did drink it, I would purify first with Auqatabs & a physical filter.

If these are being filled as Bill suggested, right after a SHTF scenario, the water should be fit for consumption temporarily.

Before I got my big tanks, I used several of these as long term storage - well, sort of. I emptied and refilled them every three months or so. I did drink out of them at the end of three months, and didn't notice any difference in taste, nor any other ill effects except for the two purple tentacles now growing from my nostrils....

Before I got my big tanks, I used several of these as long term storage - well, sort of. I emptied and refilled them every three months or so. I did drink out of them at the end of three months, and didn't notice any difference in taste, nor any other ill effects except for the two purple tentacles now growing from my nostrils....

Just curious, but how did you move them around? Rough math says that even only 2/3 full they'd weigh around 250 lbs, and that's sloshy pounds, too.

Which would probably leave you drinking water that is in better condition than what you are currently getting out of your faucets.

If I were a city dweller I would agree... I live in the countryside, with nice water, UV filter, charcoal filter, plus the Brita. So my tap water is aces... But if I have to drink rain or stream collected water, or tap water stored in less than ideal containers, I will definitely have to put through the Aquatabs, etc. (if able).

I kept them on the back patio, and when I wanted to change them out, I just tipped them over. It took some muscle power, but was doable. Get them rocking, sloshing, and then just pull them onto their sides.

I kept them on the back patio, and when I wanted to change them out, I just tipped them over. It took some muscle power, but was doable. Get them rocking, sloshing, and then just pull them onto their sides.

I did finally dredge up some memories...the one summer I worked in the camp kitchen at scout camp, we'd make punch for the chow hall in those big plastic garbage cans. They were fitted with wheeled plastic bases that we'd use to roll them around. Of course, that only works if you have a nice flat, level, unobstructed surface.

I remember once that someone wasn't careful and the wheels caught when rolling one of the punch barrels out of the walk-in fridge...that was a mess.

I kid you not, when I got married, for the dinner afterwards, my mother and my sister mixed up potato salad and macoroni salad in the plastic garbage containers....(I have a large family) using new ones of course

I have been a banquet and a buffet cook, and to this day, I have NEVER seen that much potato and macoroni salad as I did then...hahahah....

for short term use, I don't surmise much of a problem with leaching....for long term use, I probably wouldn't drink water or liquids stored in them.

I managed restaurants for a guy in Denver who literally lost one of his places in a lawsuit over food poisoning caused by storing fresh-made potato salad in five gallon buckets.

The prep cook who made it immediately put the room-temp salad into the walkin, but the salad in the center of the bucket was not cooled quickly enough to prevent botulinus (ITIW) from forming. Several dozen people were sickened, two died, and he sold the restaurant to help pay off the judgments.

ohhhh...hmmm....he should have known better...that's rule #1 in prep cooking...when I was a prep cook, we would have to take the temperature of the food about an hour after placing it in the fridge or freezer, to see if it was cooling down to a certain temp....then it was recorded...

FYI....Walmart's deli food is also temped at specific intervals...then logged....it's also only kept for a certain amount of time, then thrown out....Walmart's food is pretty safe to eat...

my family just mixed it up in the garbage cans, then put it in the foil roaster pans...then put it in the church's refrigerators....that way they didn't appear too redneck....at least they had foil pans to serve them in...hahahah!

I kid you not, when I got married, for the dinner afterwards, my mother and my sister mixed up potato salad and macoroni salad in the plastic garbage containers....(I have a large family) using new ones of course

Growing up in Detroit, you always knew when someone was planning a big backyard BBQ, because they'd go out and buy some new galvanized garbage cans. (Of course, this was before these new-fangled plastic trash cans, let alone these fancy-schmancy trash bags.)